10 Exclusive Photos From WWE WrestleMania Weekend - Day Three
Cody Rhodes & Steve Austin grab the headlines, NXT grabs some attention and nobody grab those ropes!
WWE deserve much of the criticism they receive for worrying about making brands stars more than wrestlers, not least because the latter results in plenty of the former anyway.
Virtually since launch, AEW has held ground as the babyface organisation amongst hardcore fan circles for earnestly attempting to keep promises about in-ring quality and creative consistency. WWE did exactly this during a 1990s wrestling war they’ve never stopped crowing about winning, but all hope of that ever returning decades later is lost as long as Vince McMahon remains at the wheel.
On evidence of how the ‘Show Of Shows’ looks now (if not necessarily actual ticket sales), he’s managed it more with WrestleMania than he has his own organisation’s initials. It’s a curious thing - though most have come to accept WWE as something that could barely be classified as Sports Entertainment let alone Pro Wrestling, WrestleMania is something of a unifying force for all audience. It’s holy ground for lifers, earns more than a passing glance from those that only consider themselves casual fans, and even finds a way into the hearts and minds of those that have otherwise left McMahon’s vision of the industry behind.
It’s still the place where the wrestlers working NXT Stand & Deliver one day hope to be. It’s still the place WWE superstars genuinely want to feature, even if it’s immeasurably thick to book them as such on screen. And it’s still, remarkably, the ‘Showcase Of The Immortals’.
And nobody will ever forget 2022's Night One...
10. WWE's Home Away From Home
The American Airlines is a modern facility inside, but looks almost ornate tucked away between buildings in Dallas rather than cast aside outside the city centre.
It hosted SmackDown and NXT before Night One, and will also be the home of Monday Night Raw before WrestleMania leaves for the year.